Contents

Background

Survivor Series featured professional wrestling matches that involved wrestlers from pre-existing feuds, plots, and storylines that played out on WWE's primary television programs. Wrestlers portrayed villains or heroes as they followed a series of events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.

At Hell in a Cell, Seth Rollins defeated Kane to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. The following night on Raw, eight superstars that were victorious at Hell in Cell competed in singles matches and the winners faced each other in a Fatal 4-Way match, with the winner becoming #1 contender for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at Survivor Series, in which Roman Reigns won. However, on November 5th, Rollins suffered multiple knee injuries in a live event in Dublin, Ireland, therefore the match was cancelled and the title vacated, with a tournament set for Survivor Series to crown a new champion.

ISIS threat

On November 21, 2015, the FBI announced that they were investigating an alleged threat by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant at the event. The FBI released the statement, "The FBI is aware of reports of an alleged threat that includes an Atlanta, Georgia venue and event. While we take all threats seriously, we do not have specific or credible information of an attack at this time. We have, however, made the proper notifications as we continue to work closely with our law enforcement and private sector partners to keep our community safe." International Business Times reported that the hacker group Anonymous were responsible for uncovering the information. WWE released a statement claiming that the show will go on as scheduled.